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I would agree with this. If you aren't using something like Game Golf already to analyze your game then it might be worth giving it a spin to see if it can give you some insight. I'm in a similar position to you in terms of handicap but I hit it a bit shorter. As much as I want to buy the Epic SZ the GG numbers are telling me that I have much bigger problems elsewhere. Averaging 270+ mostly on the fairway must be pretty close to scratch territory so you must be losing strokes relatively heavily elsewhere. I would speculate that picking up another 10 yards on your driver might not gain you as many strokes as fixing your biggest problem in approach/short game/putting.

The announcers on PGATourLive said Sergio hit only his third career hole in one yesterday at TPC. Given he basically plays 4 rounds a week most weeks for the last 20 years it shows they are pretty rare.

The community version is free which does do a lot / enough depending on your needs.

It couldn't be TM article without a distance gain - 'Rory picks up 10 yards on his 6 iron by moving to TM'. Hope they didn't just give him a 5 iron with the gap on the 5 scratched closed to make it look like a 6

There is a hole almost exactly like this at the course I played last year. (Same drop off, same dog leg, same trees). After much trial and error the strategy that worked best for me turned out to be a 5w aimed just over the trees on the inside of the dog leg (so just before the fairway bunker on this hole). That way a miss left or right is still probably playable and a good shot leaves easy wedge into the green. So closer to your four iron play than the 3w.

Plus kickstarter probably gives the marketing a boost. If he just released it on his website it might take a while to get out, but put it on kickstarter and it gets some free buzz.

Definitely seems to be a 'see' rather than a 'feel' methodology. Nice cameo from Phil in there. I wonder how many takes that last putt took to film? Hopefully one, right?!

Is it right that you seem to be swinging faster with the lower lofted club (or at least are getting higher ball speeds)? if each mph = 2.5 yds then that could be all the difference in numbers. Spin might also be relevant - with your 8.5' you are getting slightly lower spin at 2600 v 3000 on the 10.5. With all of the clubs though I would think getting the launch angle up to 13-15' would increase your distances. Once you've got that done then there might be some gains in optimizing spin, speed and smash if you keep getting consistently different results with the different lofts.

lol thanks for the free medical advice but I'll just ignore it. It isn't relevant to the question in the original post. I have some Gaffer tape so I'll give that a go - thanks. G30 has this weight port and it is just about possible to get cotton balls in (and out). I read that a G10 was measured at 110 decibels and drivers don't seem to be getting quieter so G30 could well be there too. Plus in a closed back driving range with hard reflective surfaces and an angled roof the acoustics might make it worse. Like you say ear plugs are probably the easiest solution.

https://www.commongroundgc.com/golf-course - looks like a good course. good luck @Pretzel - hope you play well and really looking forward to hearing how you do.

Thanks for the suggestion - I wonder how heavy it is? I think u have to be careful not to adjust swing weight too much. Each cotton ball is about half a gram so you can use a few before it alters the swing weight (I think it was 6 or 12 to go up one level from d2) I did think about this but I guess it is a no way back option. I've also read about 'hot melt' which also might one way only. I just did a quick Google and it looks like there have been studies that suggest there could be an issue but it doesn't seem like anyone has done anything about it. Maybe ear plugs for the driving range it is.

In all honesty the reason I'm thinking about it is concern about my hearing. It struck me that if I am hitting 30-50 drives in a practice session then that is a lot of noise hitting my ears! (I have worked with some professional drummers in the past and the tales they have about the impact of hearing damage are pretty stark. It's not that things just get quieter but stuff like vertigo, tinnitus etc all sound pretty life changing.) I think it is only really a problem in the close confines of a driving range and I can at worst start wearing ear buds. Just wondering if there is another option.

Yes I agree with this. But I wonder how many putts like that a pro actually has? Since I've started using my feet to feel the slope even I have less and less of these. I imagine the pros are way better and more practiced at reading plus they have a caddy to help. So I wonder if this is a small percentage improvement on a small number of putts which equals only a very very small effect on their putting numbers.

I wonder what the strokes gained impact is from using these books? i.e. how big a deal are they making to scores. I could believe they make pros putt better but equally if these guys are so good anyway does it really make a significant difference? Did the R&A come out and say exactly how big a benefit these things give? Seems like if you are going to ban something then it should be because of a measurable reason, rather than just 'it doesn't seem fair'. I think you could make a pretty good stab at measuring the effect - get a group of pros to go round a course hitting putts with and without the yardage books and add up the results. You could probably get a significant enough sample size in a week or so and then you would be able to put a number on whether it is a big deal or not.

I have a Ping G30 driver which has always made a loud sound on impact. It was always noticeable but not really a problem. I took some lessons recently and did a bit of practicing and I'm hitting my driver a lot better than I used to, but the sound is now a bit of an issue. I don't know if it is because I am hitting with a slightly higher swing speed, or that I've just been hitting a lot of drives, but it sounds much louder now. Is there anything I can do to make it quieter? I got fitted for a GBB Epic Subzero and that seems to have a much more muted impact sound - but that is quite an expensive solution! I read online that maybe putting cotton balls into the head might do the trick - is that a real thing? If anyone has any solutions I'd appreciate some ideas.

Took a while to understand that I was comparing two things rather than just one thing to a benchmark (I was looking at last 3 rounds against last 5 rounds for a while and the numbers confused me!). Also which one is blue and which is grey (adding a color key to the first panel would help with that). But overall I quite like it. I'd also like to see some of the actual shot numbers beneath the percentages (maybe a toggle to switch between). @iacasI noticed that on my stats page off the tee the scratch golfer is 53%:24%:21% - so that means missing left more than hitting the fairway? I thought this might be a bug but looking at your last 3 rounds stats you have a similar pattern. If you look at all your rounds do you still have that pattern? I am just surprised if that means a scratch golfer is only hitting fairway 24% of the time.

The only thing I know about these putters is that I've seen them both reviewed recently by Mark Crossfield. Don't know if you like Crossfield or have seen these reviews but I've linked to them below. He talks about some of the technology they employ. Purely from my point of view - I've tried out some of the Scotty putters at my local range a couple of times and wasn't blown away by them. For all the technology and looks I didn't feel like I was going to hole any more putts with them. But that is just me and ymmv. I'd agree with the comments above about getting a proper fitting/lesson with something like Edel - that makes much more sense to me than micro hinges and I can believe it would make a difference to my # of putts at the end of the season.

Just saw this today from ping - they are tracking steps for some of their players this week. https://twitter.com/PingTour/status/857352421852491776

Why was it not warrantied? Seems like breaking after 4 rounds of use would indicate it wasn't fit for purpose.

This may have been answered before but I couldn't find it in this thread - is it possible to get your data out of GameGolf and into a spreadsheet? I'd like to do some analysis on my numbers but there doesn't seem to be a way to get the raw shot data out efficiently. I am guessing the answer is no but I'm wondering (a) why not? and (b) does anyone know or have a view on whether it will be available in the future?

+1 on the v1 Glides. I had some vokeys before I moved to Glides and have found them to be really consistent. I'm thinking of replacing them as I've had them a while and might even buy another set of v1s instead of the v2s.

If I started from a position of 'I have one year and $25k to spend on improving my golf game' I don't think on day 1 I would be unwrapping a Trackman! For me getting a good coach and practicing smart would get you a lot further with money left over. However, if the starting position is 'I have loads of spare cash and time and I quite like golf' then sure, why not? Trackman is a great idea. Just looking at the schedule it seems like there is a lot of golf in there. Maybe for a few weeks it would be ok but ultimately getting up every day and playing that much golf trying to improve all the time could get tiresome. If you aren't a pro or doing it for recreation and 'all' you are going to get out of it is a 0 hcp then I think motivation might become an issue. Also as others have said the practice plan doesn't seem to be balanced correctly. It will be really interesting to see if and how that changes over the course of the year. I guess that starting out with the wrong plan won't necessarily stop you from succeeding, but failing to change to the right plan probably will. (I liked the comment in the edit of his initial post about how it was too windy to use his Trackman so he couldn't practice - very 21st century golf)

I think if the OP can't get the results they need from an iPhone (or even two or three iPhones) then the next step up in quality is going to cost. Currently 240fps is close to the edge of the envelope for consumer devices. There are consumer level cameras out there that do higher fps rates but a lot have limitations behind the fps headline such as lower resolution or only record for limited time. There is a phantom for about $10k (but you will probably also need supporting tech that might cost as much). I know on the golf app I mentioned they actually only hired the phantom for a few days to get the shots but that wouldn't work for the op. I guess you also have to factor in workflow - how are you going to get images out of the camera and use them in real time? On the iPhone you can probably get an app for that but on a DSLR or similar you might be looking at a very small screen, need lots of cables, or even have to transfer memory cards back and forth. This website has some useful information on it all http://www.hispeedcams.com

If price really isn't an issue then phantom cameras are pretty good for slo-mo. I've seen them used in a golf app for iPhone and they go into the 1000s of fps. www.phantomhighspeed.com if you really need to get high quality slow motion then they are hard to beat imho.

Yes. I think that paint job is called red crackle (there is a blue version too). PRS experimented a bit with paint jobs in the late 80s so there are some unusual ones out there.